Kathy Binks said nothing wrong. But, based on today’s political correctness, you can’t call a duck a duck. Joe Olague owes the apology. As Olague suggests, let’s look at history. I will use myself as an example.

My parents fled a European country just ahead of a communist occupation after WWII.

After fleeing to Germany, they waited for a sponsorship in the United States, which took several years. After arriving in the United States in the early 1950s, my parents learned English, took the citizenship test, and became citizens. In late 1950s I was born to American citizens and I was not an “anchor baby.” This includes thousands like my parents. My parents lived in a refugee camp and obeyed the law. And, when allowed, they entered this country.

“Anchor babies” are just what the name suggests. Those here illegally are allowed to stay because of the children born in the United States. Mr. Olague, what is a better term? Please share. I would really hate to call a duck a duck.

STANLEY ZIEMELIS

Rancho Cucamonga

Facts Dems didn’t share

The reader thanking Joe Baca for his “yes” votes on the “health care” (and student loan industry) takeover probably didn’t know that her letter would appear on April 1.

Because of the aggressive string of misrepresentations told by most (not all) Democrats, she also didn’t know:

that her three kids and seven grand-kids will never be free of the debt, largely because of the hidden $250 billion “Doctor fix” bill and

$500 billion gutting of Medicare, which was “used” for both hidden financing of Obamacare and propping up the old, failing federal health system, as well as states carrying most of the burden after a few years;

that medical insurance rates will be – and already are – rising and jobs being cut due to new burdens on companies (check “Caterpillar” online), and that millions of new patients with the same number (or fewer, as many retire to avoid the mess) of doctors means slower and poorer care for those offspring;

that as the new system bankrupts itself and the country (debt jumping from the new $12 trillion to $30-plus trillion), rationing will be across the board, with “less viable” (older, sicker) people getting cut off because “it would not be efficient” (check every other socialized system, which we copied);

that there are almost no new services for four to five years, though taxes and costs of every kind start immediately and balloon after election years (gee);

that as they change jobs or their old insurance companies are crushed, they will be required to take “government approved” policies in a shrinking market, eventually only Medicare and Medicaid;

or that “Working Joe,” the “fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrat,” is just another progressive socialist who knew about all of this (as well as the deals, bribes and corruption) while he promised her the opposite.

Thank God that her blood pressure is down, she sounds nice. I pray that the facts being confirmed daily do not cause her new problems.

This government isn’t worried about the health of her family, either.

CURTIS ALLEN

Ontario

Servants became masters

We Americans always have been able to proudly proclaim that we live in a free country. Not anymore. If the federal government can force us to buy health insurance, even if we don’t need or want it, and then fine us several thousand dollars if we refuse to do so, in what way are we free?

The so-called public servants have transformed themselves into our masters. Now, we are the servants. And we shall do as we are told, or else. That’s not my idea of freedom.

MICHAEL LANE

Fontana

Be prepared

What more does it take for Southern Californians to grasp the real depth of our recent earthquakes? You would think that a few actual earthquakes would raise a scare. But nope. After last month’s earthquakes, we civilians seem to not even be bothered one bit about the danger that these seemingly harmless quakes could bring.

All the warnings, the signs, the proof that we are in fact due for another big earthquake doesn’t even seem to faze civilians. It will not come down to how much supplies we have and how much help we receive from outside sources.

It will simply come down to how well we are prepared. If we can get a head start now and start packing survival kits and needed first aid materials, the impact of the quake on an individual’s life can be salvaged from something deadly.

Of course, we cannot effect the magnitude of the quake or the severity of the damage, but we can control how well we are able to pick ourselves up after the fact.

The American people have always been one of strength and courage but in these cases, we have to prepare the best way we can, not oblivious to our own vulnerability.